Intro - Mike

[Mike2023]

Hi all, I'm Mike. 

 

I've already posted on another thread so my apologies for the late introduction, the brain isn't quite what it was lol.

 

I suffered my NASAH on the 17th June 2023. 

I remember very little of exactly what happened over the next month but this experience has highlighted to me exactly how lucky I am and that  a very fortunate sequence of events saved my life.  My account here is based mostly on what my family have told me. 

 

At maybe 10pm at night I was facetiming my partner and had a blinding flash of pain in my head - I told her I had to hang up and lay down. I subsequently went into the garden to lay down. I can remember throwing up and wondering if I should call my daughter who was upstairs in the house. She subsequently found me hypothermic at around 11pm. I'm told that the cold may have saved my life

 

I'd had a spliff (I am a very infrequent user) but was reluctant  to tell my daughter so instead I said that I must have food poisoning as we'd had a meal out earlier that evening. 

 

I apparently spent the next two days wrapped up in bed refusing to go to the GP and self medicating basically anything I could find (Paracetamol, Naproxen, even Flucloxacillin)

 

Both my adult Daughter and eldest Son deferred to my choice as I am a strong character.  They hid my meds lol. I  can laugh about my ridiculous behaviour now.

 

On the third day my Partner who lives a fair distance away drove down and between them all they forced me to go to the GP. (I'd hidden the seriousness of how I felt sticking to the food poisoning line)

 

Two hours later I was on a saline drip in triage - sodium levels critically low,  admitted immediately to the only Neuro Ward in Wales  (7 beds) An Angiogram followed which determined no Aneurism and therefore no explanation for the (massive) bleed.

 

I then suffered the complication of Hydrocephalus so needed a lumbar puncture flowed by lumbar drain. Fortunately the drain worked though I remember very little of the first two weeks there.

 

The good news was that an extensive MRI and second Angiogram revealed nothing sinister and I was discharged after around three weeks. 

 

A slow recovery with many symptoms has ensued but I can finally say I am getting somewhere near to normal. 

 

One thing this experience has taught me is to be more open with my family, and I have had conversations with my two eldest children, both young adults that in the future if they suspect any serious illness in anyone to take control of the situation and ignore any stubborn folk in their lives.

 

I also set up a Whatsapp group with family members simply called "Emergency" It is only to be used for exactly that and any post, even a single letter will bring family running. Also when I'm home alone at night I take the keys out of the doors (just in case) 

 

My daughter made me aware of this site but until now I have been reluctant to research fearing what I may find. That has now subsided and I am now very interested in trying to find out what may have caused my NASAH, though I am aware that most have no scientifically known explanation.  So I intend to start a thread in that vein - hope that is okay.

 

Hoping that my shared experience can help others and that you all recover as I am

 

Mike